Cell Phone Tip: How to get Free Texting on your Web-enabled Phone

I don't know about you, but it annoys the crap out of me that that my mobile provider can hit me twice for what should be a single unlimited-use charge:  $30 for an unlimited data plan, and another $20 for unlimited texting.  Really? What am I paying for??  Let's review:

Texting plan features:

• Send text/picture messages with a 160 character limit
  

Data plan features:

• Browse websites
• Send/receive email
• IM
• Social Networking
• Blogging
• Watch my freaking cable TV (Slingbox)
  
• And more...

So why the hell should I pay 2/3 as much for texts as I do for data?  Well, now we don't have to.

There are lots of ways to send text messages using a computer, but until recently none of them were practical for both sending AND receiving messages, especially on a phone.  Fortunately, a solution has arrived:  Google Voice.

If you don't know what Google Voice is, read the feature page...it's pretty cool stuff.  Even if you've got no interest in the other features, it's worth it to sign up (FREE) just for the SMS(texting) feature.

After you've done so, setting up free texting is easy:

• Go to Settings>Voicemail & SMS and check "Forward SMS messages to my email." 
• Then go to Phones>Edit and make sure "Receive SMS on this phone" is unchecked.  That way you'll only receive texts in your email, not your SMS inbox.

That's it!  Just make sure friends know to use your Google Voice number (at least for texting purposes). When they send you an SMS, instead of a text you'll get an email!  You can reply to that email like you would a regular email and it will be transmitted back to your friend-who-likes-paying-for-texts' phone as an SMS.


Voila! Now you're texting for free.

Avoid Texting Fees.  Send SMS to your e-mail with Google Voice
[Google Voice]